Animal rights activists are outraged at the organisation for allowing the shooting of seals by salmon farmers in its new welfare standards.

‘No one wants to see seals shot,’ RSPCA chief executive Jeremy Cooper told ITV. ‘Least of all the RSPCA. But we have a welfare situation where we have to consider the hundreds, even thousands of salmon that suffer.

‘It’s important to stress that one seal shot is one seal too many, and for us it creates a real welfare dilemma.

‘The RSPCA welfare standards ensure that shooting is a last resort.’

A seal swimming in muddy water (Picture: AFP/Getty Images)

Elisa Allen, a spokeswoman for Peta, said: ‘How beyond outrageous that seals are willfully deprived of their existence so that farmers and supermarkets can sell their only source of food (fish).

‘What are the RSPCA playing at? There is no justification for shooting these beautiful animals, and The Freedom Food scheme is, and has always been, a cruel sham.

‘RSPCA-approved meat and fish is like getting Amnesty International to approve executions.’

‘The number of seals still shot in Scottish waters every year is totally unacceptable, especially as we believe it is perfectly possible to deter seals and other wild predators without harming them,’ they said.

A grey seal pup (Picture: Getty Images)

And John Robins, from the Save Our Seals campaign, wrote a heartfelt response to the new standards.

‘I must admit I am looking for a brick wall to bang my head against,’ he said.

‘If you do not use proper predator exclusion nets to keep seals well away from salmon farms, then you cannot claim that shooting seals is only done as a last resort.’